The image was drawn on the back of Edward Hopper’s third grade report card dated October 23, 1891, when Hopper was nine years old.

2. The dystopic future with Blade Runner 2049

That scene from Blade Runner 2049 should definitely be seen in theatre on the widest screen you can find, where the rest of the visual field is blotted out, and with a sound system where the sounds waves vibrate your body. This man is right, see it now, while it’s still in the theatres. It won’t last long, because while the critics rave, the audiences have been slow, as they were for the Ridley Scott 1982 original.

I didn’t see it as a big, serious investigation of what it is to be human, or about our possible technology-enhanced future. Just an extraordinary filmic experience. It works on several levels, as an action movie, sci-fi, a love story, a personal quest, with visuals of a planet that has evidently experienced something like a nuclear holocaust.

3. The world is changing

It seems the result is a foregone conclusion, and the place will be run by billionaire businessman Andrej Babis if he stays out of jail. There is an anti-refugee theme, but the bigger problem is that he will run the country like a firm – his firm.

Democracy is at stake.

Richard Fidler’s latest conversation was with Masha Gessen, who has commented copiously on Russia and the Trump phenomenon in the United States. She sees both Putin and Trump with very different inpersonality and style, but both mafia-like figures, who establish a family-like elite, decide who is in and who is out, are quite ruthless in evicting people, and govern the country in the interests of the elite. The mafia analogy is the most appropriate in understanding a wider trend to authoritarian rule in other states where democracy is in retreat. Hungary and Poland are notable European examples.

Lies are a way of demonstrating power – I can do and say anything I like and there is nothing you can do about it.

Important institutions of state are being dismantled or radically changed in the US in plain sight. She mentioned the State Department, which is being disabled from the ability to counter China on the ground in the east, and the judiciary at home, where a raft of younger judges with severe ideological bent will transform ‘justice’.

She says Hillary Clinton’s book is quite thorough in its self-analysis, but Gissen’s big disappointment was that Clinton’s staff persuaded her to drop a Universal Basic Income proposal she had. She had heaps of good policy on her website, but tactically ran a negative campaign pointing out that Trump was unfit for office. Unfortunately it involved saying that we didn’t need to make America great again, because it already was, meaning the pain many were feeling was as good as it gets.

This mafia authoritarianism is not just an episode, easily cured by electing a more suitable candidate next time. The country is changing fundamentally. Civil society has been stirred into action, which is good and will help.

4. Final rites to the car industry

Four years ago Abbott and Hockey succeeded in the relatively easy job of hectoring the car industry out of town.

He said a government with a brain (not his words) could have preserved the industry, but there was a genuine question of opportunity cost. Could the government support have been better directed elsewhere?

He said that other smallish economies do scoping studies to see where the best industry opportunities lie, and then have strategies to support development. We don’t, preferring to drive into the future with our hands off the wheel.

He says that there are several thousand companies in Australia which are best-in-world at what they do, mostly small with fewer than 100 employees, and that’s where our future lies. If we had the gumption to recognise this and develop models of action, of which there are plenty examples in other countries, we could do very well indeed.

5. Physician assisted dying

Physician-assisted dying laws have passed the lower house in Victoria, supported by Premier Daniel Andrews and fiercely opposed by Deputy Premier James Merlino. The action now moves to the upper house, where the ‘yes’ vote is favoured, but numbers are tight.

Andrews says that if Keating had read all the coroners reports that he had read, Keating may have a different view. Many of the bill’s supporters say that physician-assisted dying is happening every day in diverse ways, under the radar. Better to clean it up and do it properly.

One of the ironies of the euthanasia debate is that, for most of our adult lives, we are able to self euthanize if we want to. It is too often only when we have reached the point where euthanasia may make sense that we are unable to take our own lives.
One of the advantages of euthanasia is that there should be checks and balances that, among other things, make sure the person seeking to die has got the facts straight and has considered the alternatives. My guess is that these checks and balances would stop some suicides.
I am speculating but I suspect that some of the increased suicide rate amongst men in their eighties involves men who can see that they are approaching a stage where they will no longer be able to decide when they will die and decide to get in before they lose this power.

Ambi: I grew up at a time when very few people owned cars. Not sure I really want to go all the way back there. We should be looking for ways of providing independent, safe weatherproof transport that doesn’t assume that cars have to be big enough to carry a family.

It just chimed with a brief talk I heard recently, that with driverless, electric vehicles coming, folk will “dial up” a vehicle when needed. Sounds feasible for cities.

Not sure about tradies, long holidays in rural or remote areas.
Many vehicles sit idle for 22 hours a day. Is that an emissions problem? (Embodied energy of manufacture). Or will it simply be re-charging time for their batteries?

Ambi: Autonomous car sharing (think autonomous taxis) as a replacement for the privately owned car may make sense under some circumstances. However, if they are widely used and people are still making the same trips:
1. Total car travel distance will actually increase substantially because vehicles travelling empty between customers add to the total.
2. Most of these cars will be parked for most of the day if they are going to be used for peak hour travel. The reduction in car fleet size may be much lower than expected.
3. Then there is the question of what happens if your ride arrives after the previous traveler has chucked all over the car or otherwise made a mess.
4. If you are including vehicles that pick up and put down extra passengers along the route there could be security issues unless passengers are kept securely separate from each other.
Concerns have also been expressed that autonomous taxis may add to congestion if they become popular enough to increase the number of people using transport in general or taking business away from public transport.
On the other hand:
1. Auto taxis may become popular in high density population areas where people cant afford the price of garaging and/or only really need cars occasionally.
2. They may also become popular in outer areas as a practical method of connecting to and from high frequency public transport.
3. They may actually reduce congestion if they allow customers to use very compact vehicles that are designed for one passenger only and narrow enough to travel at least two abreast in a normal traffic lane. (On the other hand taxi owners may decide that it makes more sense to buy medium car size taxis because they will be adequate for a wider range of customers.
Me, I think that this low cost, carbon fibre E- blade scooter

“The journey from your home to your office or around your neighborhood can be very stressful most times, likewise the walk from the bus station to wherever you wish to go. The new Black Carbon Fiber 8.8Ah Portable Foldable Australia Electric Scooter Motorized Smart Bike was produced just for you. This scooter is very easy to use and understand, it can actually be setup in just 1 SECOND, and it weighs approximately 6.6 kg. It is important to note that the Portable Electric Scooter runs on 8.8AH / 10.4AH Lithium battery and it can go to a distance of up to 20km(8.8AH) when fully charged. Please note that the maximum speed is up to 25km/h.
The link gives more details but it sounds like something that could be used for the full commute to the CBD or as a link to and from public transport. Big attraction is that it is small enough to carry on public transport.
There are plenty of alternatives. Some of them offer seats for people who don’t want to stand up for too long.

Would make more sense for inner city transport and connecting with and carrying on public transport.

I think the low cost, carbon fibre E- blade scooter would be offset by expensive medical bills from falling off it and breaking bones whenever the tiny wheels hit potholes and more than small bumps in the road/pavement. The wheels would need to be much bigger before you’d catch me riding one, IMHO.

GM: My experience with blade scooters is that someone riding a blade scooter needs to watch where they are going because, as you say, they don’t handle holes and gutters as well as bikes with their much larger wheels do. (However, I have seen one of my sons riding his scooter and jumping up over the edge of a city gutter with his cup of coffee in his hand without spilling a drop. Experience obviously helps.) On the other hand, blade scooters are easy to get off in a crisis and much much better at weaving through pedestrians and clutter than bikes. They are also much easier to carry on to public transport, fit into the back of a small car or, as my son does, carry into important meetings. (Says it adds to his prestige – Then again, his research specialties are illegal drugs and prostitution so that may make a difference.)

CNN reports that Robert Mueller has filed the first charges arising from the so-called “Russia investigation” which is, as I said all along fake news folks, and CNN is the fakest of fhe fakers, you know? It’s all great, we are doing so very well folks, and I really appreciate your support. We’ll drain that swamp!! Like I say you can do anything if you’re a celebrity.

CNN reports that Robert Mueller has filed the first charges arising from the so-called “Russia investigation” which is, as I said all along fake news folks, and CNN is the fakest of the fakers, you know? It’s all great, we are doing so very well folks, and I really appreciate your support. We’ll drain that swamp!! Like I say you can do anything if you’re a celebrity.

Will ON become the Queenmaker (as in Winston Peters, stilled termed “Kingmaker”, as if no-one has noticed that Jacinda was almost certainly not a Prince; across the Dutch)?

How many anti-Labor parties are there in Qld?
I count ON, LNP, Liberal (rump), National (rump), Bernardi, Family First, The Katter Dynasty, Hunters, Shooters, Fishers, Rip out the Trees with Chains, Fix the Bruce Hwy, Where is our NBN, …..
but being a southerner, I await correction, clarification, and prognostications.

Climate change, sustainability, plus sundry other stuff

Climate Plus seeks to make information on climate change accessible and to provide a congenial venue for discussion and sharing. Beyond that selected issues of the day will be covered together with sundry other topics.